"You wanted to see me, Dr. Jones?" Charlie asked as she knocked on Mercedes Jones door, and rubbed her arm.

Mercedes glanced up from where she'd been in the middle of wrangling the budget and attempting to try and find Santana's replacement. "Sit down, Dr. Fabray," Mercedes said as she picks up another impressive resume. When Charlie doesn't budge Mercedes sighs and looks up at her. "I'm not going to fire you Dr. Fabray. The deal was that if you could get over your case of the yips, you could keep your job. You've kept up your end of the bargain, which means that you can go back to your usual privileges."

"All my privileges are back?" Charlie asks as she takes a seat, a huge grin on her face. She wasn't going to have to move in with Quinn and Rachel or deal with her parents.

Mercedes places the resume down and looks over at Charlie, "You will be taking over Dr. Lopez's cases until I state otherwise. The moment you could cut again, she muttered something about Bora Bora, and booze, and left. Considering that she took over your caseload when you couldn't cut I think it's only fair that you take over her caseload until she returns." She half expects Charlie to protest her decision but Charlie just nods as if it made sense. "You're not upset?"

"That I have to cover for San—Dr. Lopez? No, it makes sense. She basically covered me for a few weeks and I know there were days when she didn't get home until after midnight. I'd honestly rather do this for her then trying to figure out a way to thank her that doesn't give her any weird ideas." Charlie muttered the last bit. She had planned to ask Santana out to dinner but now she wouldn't have to.

Mercedes blinked, surprised. Santana had informed her rather bluntly that Charlie might be resistant to helping her. "I thought you hated Dr. Lopez."

Charlie frowned ever so slightly and fidgets before sighing. "She's my soulmate, and even though she treated me horribly for seven years and attempted to sink my career on multiple occasions, I don't hate her. It's complicated. How I feel is complicated, and maybe while she's enjoying Bora Bora, I can work through some things." Charlie shrugged her shoulders, it felt weird to admit it to someone who wasn't her immediate family. But if she was going to attempt to figure things out with Santana then she probably needed to fill out some paperwork.

Mercedes struggled to school her face, Santana had also sworn that Charlie would never claim her as a soulmate, at least not publicly. "You're soulmates?" Mercedes questioned.

"Yeah, but we haven't done anything. The bond isn't complete, so she'll stop aging while she's in Bora Bora," Charlie admits, scratching her chin. She pauses for a moment, she was expecting more shock from Dr. Jones, but she didn't seem to be the least bit surprised. "You already knew."

"Dr. Lopez and I go way back. She brought it up when she was attempting to save your job. She also swore me to secrecy," Mercedes says as she picks up the resume she'd been reading. Kurt was going to eat this up, though perhaps she needed to reject Santana's resignation. It would certainly save her from having to interview people. But it wasn't as if she had Santana's number, but if Santana Lopez came back she'd simply have to hire her again.

Charlie nodded, that made some sense. Either way she couldn't be mad at Santana for trying to save her job. "If that's all? I should probably go and start my rounds, it's going to be a long day."

Mercedes nodded rather dismissively and waited until Charlie took her leave before she immediately picked up her phone, ready to call Kurt to spill the tea. This was a disaster, Santana had resigned, just as Charlie had started to warm up to her. From what she had managed to piece together, Santana had simply grown impatient again. It had always been Santana's weakness, their relationship was always going to need to take time, now wasn't the time to disappear in the night, it was time to press her advantage as Charlie's savior. Maybe she should stop by Santana's place to see if she had taken off just yet, to see if she could help Santana get what she wanted.

~ O ~

Charlie adjusted the large pizza and the six-pack, in her hands so she could push the button to the fourth floor. She felt ridiculous, but after two weeks of nonstop surgeries, she was grateful for her small break and Dr. Jones had informed her that she would no longer be dealing with Santana's caseload. Which meant that Santana was probably back from her vacation.

Tapping her foot nervously, she can't help but fidget, she wasn't quite sure what she was hoping to accomplish with this offering. The only thing she knew for certain was that she was tired of being angry with Santana all the time. Maybe they needed a clean slate of sorts, at the very least she could simply accept Santana's apology and maybe they could start having dinner or lunch together at least once a week to get to know one another.

"You're not a teenage virgin anymore," Charlie scolded herself. She was overthinking. Sure, it had been a very very long time since she'd had a visitor down there that wasn't her hand. And sure, she wasn't quite sure she remembered the mechanics of sex, but but she wasn't going to have sex with Santana Lopez. This was only a peace offering, and if Santana was going to be her usual dickish self, then they would simply have to cut the hospital in two and stay on their respective sides.

The elevator door dings and Charlie immediately steps off it, and heads to Santana's apartment. She'd only been to the floor once before, to drop off Santana's tupperware. She stops in front of apartment 420, and taps on the door with her foot. She wasn't quite sure what to say to Santana, she certainly wasn't going to apologize for any past insults. Santana had started this whole thing by being—

"I didn't order a pizza."

Charlie was yanked from her thoughts, and she turned her attention to the door where a distinctly male and non-Santana voice had come through the door. "I brought the pizza for Santana, beers mine. I'm probably going to need it—who is this?"

"Finn—I'm the guy who lives here now, I moved in on the first."

Charlie does some quick math, that had been just a few days ago. "Wait—you just moved in on Friday?" Charlie questions, suddenly very confused. "What happened to the short crazy loud doctor that used to live here?"

"I don't know!"

Charlie blinked, none of this made any sense. Santana had gone to Bora Bora for a vacation, when did she have time to change apartments? "Did you see anyone when you were moving in? When did you even see the place?" The man sighs from behind the door and opens it, causing Charlie to take a step back so she could look up at him.

"Look, I was in the market for a place and I think I was the first person to view this place. I saw it a couple of weeks ago. It was empty. I moved in on the first—are you stalking someone?"

"My soulmate lived here," Charlie says slowly as her mind began to piece together all the information she'd been given. It had been a long two weeks, and she could still feel the cobwebs on her brain, but it all came together a few seconds later. "She left," Charlie says tilting her head in shock.

~ O ~

Mercedes blinked once before looking up when someone dumped a paper onto her desk, she's not truly surprised to see Dr. Fabray standing there with an outraged expression on her face. She was surprised that it had happened before Santana's replacement had been announced to the staff. "What's this?"

"My resignation," Charlie stated simply. "Where is she?"

"I'm not accepting that," Mercedes informs Charlie calmly. "I don't know where Dr. Lopez is, it's not like she left a forwarding address."

"You're not—"

"I also don't quite know why you're so upset, Dr. Lopez is merely filling out a promise that she made to you," Mercedes says as she goes back to her mountain of paperwork.

Charlie scowled, "What are you talking about? What promise?"

Mercedes paused and looked up at Charlie, "You two really are soulmates," she muses before opening the top drawer to her desk and pulling out an envelope and handing it to Charlie. "She told you that at the end of the month, you'd never see her again. The fact that you got over your case of the yips, and your job was saved meant that you wouldn't have to leave. So she left."

Charlie inhaled sharply and made a face, "And went where?" Charlie asks.

Mercedes sighed, "I don't know, and I would tell you if I did. Dr. Lopez is a gifted surgeon, any hospital would take her in a heartbeat. I would have heard about it, but as far as I know there isn't a hospital in the country that is boasting about grabbing her."

Charlie closed her eyes, for a moment. She takes another breath, before opening her eyes and looking at Mercedes. "I'll stay until you find my replacement."